| The historical planning precedents
underlying CMA’s present urban form have had a major influence over the present
traffic conditions. The spatial separation of work and residence places has resulted in
high volumes of commuters travelling large distances between home and work. This, combined
with the dominance of private motor vehicles as the primary single mode of transport,
together with other road based public transport modes, has created high volumes of traffic
on all major routes within the CMA. Traffic
is considered an important issue in the CMA, not only due to the inconvenience of traffic
jams during peak commuting hours, but also due to the effects of vehicular emissions on
air quality (See Air Quality). The Cape Town CBD, together
with the Northern and Southern arms, houses some 37% of the population but contains over
80% of all jobs (CMC, 1997/8). The result is a huge daily movement of people between their
homes and places of work. Thus, the CMA experiences high levels of congestion on all
access corridors to the Cape Town CBD. |
|
| Contents of CONTEXTUAL INFO on
Transportation: |
|
|
| Mode of transport |
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| Inhabitants in the CMA use various modes of transport to commute between
their place of residence and employment. Although the single dominant mode of transport is
private vehicles, the modal split between public and private and public transport is
relatively stable at around 50% each (CMC, 1999a). Public modes of transport consist of
buses, minibus taxis and rail, with rail being the most preferred choice of public
transport users. There is a lack of integration between modes of transport in the CMA
(Cameron, 1997). Figure 1 shows the ‘modal split’ in
1998 and Map 1 and Map 2 presents
the absolute numbers of bus/taxi and rail commuters by residential area respectively for
1996. |
|
|
 |
| NOTE: The term ‘Taxi feeder’ refers to the use of taxis to reach
another mode of transport, whereas ‘Taxi line haul’ transports passengers to
their final destination. (Source: CMC, 1999a)
|
|
| Public transport |
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| At present, the three main providers of public transport services in the
CMA operate largely independently. There is extensive scope to rationalise public
transport services and provide an integrated multi-modal public transport system in the
metropole. |
| Rail services |
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Currently, all commuter rail services in the CMA are provided by Cape
Metrorail, a business unit of the parastatal company Transnet (Pty) Ltd. The CMA has a
250km electrified railway network servicing a total of 117 passenger stations. This
railway network, comprising seven rail routes, serves mainly the southern and the eastern
areas, with no commuter rail routes to the northern area of the CMA (See Infrastructure: Map1 and Transportation:
Map 2). In 1998, Metrorail accommodated 265 000 during peak periods (CMC, 1999a). Rail
services have recently been cut and trains on main rail routes do not operate any later
than 20h00 or earlier than 05h00. Table 1 indicates
central government subsidies for rail from 1990 to 1998.
|
| Bus services |
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| The largest and almost exclusive operator of passenger bus services in the
CMA is Golden Arrow Bus Services (Pty) Ltd. Peak period services are provided on 900
routes or route combinations, however on half of these routes, only one bus trip is
scheduled (CMC, 1997/8). All routes carry at least six trips during a normal working day.
The routes with the highest bus/passenger demand are in areas without direct rail services
to employment centres (see Map 2). Busses operate at
approximately 43% capacity during peak periods. Table 1 indicates
central government subsidies for bus services from 1990 to 1998. |
|
| MODE |
YEAR |
| |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
| Bus |
45 |
51 |
44 |
54 |
59 |
70 |
86 |
120 |
160 |
| Rail |
110 |
132 |
154 |
176 |
198 |
220 |
229 |
248 |
255 |
|
| (Source: CMC, 1999a) |
| Minibus-taxi
services |
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| Approximately 59 different taxi associations comprising some 4 000
minibus-taxis operate in the CMA (CMC, 1997/8). Some 170 mini-bus taxi routes are operated
from about 60 formal taxi ranks. Some minibus-taxi routes operate as short feeder services
to line haul taxi, bus and train services. Longer routes often operate in direct
competition with subsidised bus and rail services. The capacity of a minibus-taxi varies
from 11 to 15 passengers. Minibus-taxis operate at 59% capacity during peak periods.
Minibus-taxis currently do not receive subsidies. |
| Private vehicles |
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| There are approximately 670 000 registered vehicles (all classes) in the
CMA at present. Vehicle ownership has increased by 34% in the last 11 years (1986-1995).
This increase in the number of vehicles is above most developing countries. The numbers of
cars has increased by almost 80% in last 20 years. Figure 2 shows
vehicle registrations in the CMA. |
| Figure 2: |
Vehicle
registrations in the Cape Metropolitan Area
(Source: CMC, 1998) |
|
 |
| NOTE: Vehicle registrations include CA, CY, CEY, CFM, and CFR.x |
| Private transport is the dominant single form of transport used by
commuters in the CMA (approximately 50%). The highest proportion of private car commuting
is done from the higher income areas, but in terms of absolute numbers of cars, the
highest figures are found in the middle and lower income areas. Over 30% of all commuters
originate in the south eastern areas of the CMA. In terms of business travel, private car
transport is again dominant, further increasing traffic volumes on CMA roads. The average metropolitan home - work trip is
approximately 14 km (Figure 3). Lower income areas average higher
travel distances (15.5 km) than higher income areas (12.6 km), highlighting the separation
of work and residence places in the CMA (CMC, 1997/8). The discrepancy between work
and residence is also indicated in Settlement Patterns:
Figure 3
|
| Figure 3: |
| Trip
length frequencies (Source: CMC, 1998) |
|
 |
| Road traffic safety |
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| The
first Road Traffic Accident Statistics report issued by the CMC’s Transportation and
Traffic Directorate in February 1999 highlighted the poor traffic safety record in the
CMA. The report findings were based on an assessment of road accident statistics for 1997.
In 1997, a total of 62 561 accidents were recorded, which equates to 171 per day or seven
per hour. The majority of these accidents occurred at peak traffic times, i.e. 07h00 to
09h00 and 15h00 to 18h00, with Friday being the worst day of the week for accidents in all
areas of the CMA. Furthermore, most accidents were found to occur in the wet winter months
(CMC, 1999). The total financial cost of these accidents amounted to R1.4 billion. Table 2 shows the accidents
and casualties in 1997 by injury classification for each MLC. Of the 724 fatalities
recorded, a total of 404 (or 55.8%) were pedestrian. Of all casualties (12 118), which
includes fatalities, 32% were pedestrians. Thirty nine percent of all pedestrians involved
in accidents were under the age of 13 years. |
Table 2 |
Accidents
and casualties by injury classification by Metropolitan Local Council |
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|
|
ACCIDENTS |
CASUALTIES |
Area |
Fatal |
Injury |
Damage only |
Total |
Fatal |
Serious
Injury |
Slight
Injury |
Total |
| Cape Town |
293 |
3
923 |
26
736 |
30
952 |
313 |
602 |
4
189 |
5
104 |
| Helderberg |
25 |
408 |
2
543 |
2
976 |
28 |
58 |
416 |
502 |
| Oostenberg |
77 |
810 |
3
472 |
4
359 |
86 |
222 |
826 |
1
134 |
| Blaauwberg |
41 |
654 |
3
119 |
3
814 |
53 |
173 |
820 |
1
046 |
| Tygerberg |
153 |
1
970 |
10
147 |
12
270 |
195 |
392 |
2
029 |
2
616 |
| South Peninsula |
33 |
1
173 |
6
984 |
8
190 |
49 |
162 |
1
505 |
1
716 |
| Metropolitan |
622 |
8 938 |
53 001 |
62 561 |
724 |
1 609 |
9 785 |
12 118 |
| % of Total |
1% |
14% |
85% |
100% |
6% |
13% |
81% |
100% |
|
| (Source: CMC, 1999) |
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